The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1913. A DULL OPENING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1828, 14 August 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1913. A DULL OPENING.

It is difficult to recall a, more dull and uninteresting opening of a Financial Debate than that of last evening in the House of Kepresentatives. Expectation had been raised of a tremendous onslaught -on the figures of the Minister of Finance and . on the Government's policy generally. The administration of the various Departments was to be torn to shreds and tatters. Instead, however, of any violent ebullitions such as had been hinted at, the member for the Bay of Plenty, Me. Macdonald, one of the least attractive speakers in the House, was put up to lead off for the leaderless Opposition; and he jerkily and stumblingly performed what was obviously a difficult task. While Mr. Macdonald is always a poor speaker, his matter is often good, and his points, though seldom well made, not infrequently are of a penetrating nature; but last evening lie was less happy than usual in his line of attack. For some inexplicable reason he took finance as the main subject of his criticism. On Native land questions or land settlement, or even on Public Works matters, he can speak with some confidence and can command the attention of the House, but in attempting to pose as a financial authority lie simply courted disaster. It is doubtful if there was a single member of the House who could follow intelligently his confused analysis of the Budget figures, and the only clcar pointvisible in the mass of figures and assertions which ha laboriously laid before the House was his sublime belief that Me. Myers was right ancl Mr. Allen wrong as to the financial position of the country

when the Massey Government took 3ff.ee. He did better when he abanoned finance, and made one or two minor party scores respecting the settlement of Native lands, and became for the moment quite fluent in his defence of the Continuous Ministry for its neglect of the school teachers. It was, however, on the whole, an uninspiring speech, containing nothing that was new and not a few indiscretions.

The Minister for Public Works, who followed, did not impart much additional life into the debate, although he relieved it of a little of its dullness by his occasional replies to interjeeters. In the course of his remarks, however, he said a thing which the Opposition might with profit take to heart. The public, he said in effect, were not deceived by the make-believe attacks of the Opposition. The people knew very well when a man was in earnest and when he was not, and when members of the Opposition rose and attacked the Government with a pretence of seriousness, while all the time they knew that'the allegations they were making were merely street gossip and quite unsupported by facts, tho public very soon learned what value to put on such tactics. This rebuke was well deserved. Probably there has never existed in New Zealand a party so lacking in a proper sense of responsibility for its utterances and its actions as the present Opposition. Its members repeat with the utmost freedom idle street slanders which they have not a tittle of evidence to support; the grossest misrepresentations and disr tortions of the actions of Ministers are' indulged in; anything, in fact, is regarded as fair and honourable fighting which seems likely to enable them to score an advantage over their opponents, whatever its source may be and however improbable it may be that it has any foundation in fact. This may be due in part to the fact that the party is leaderless, and that members act for themselves, regardless of the effect on their party, and without thought of the tendency such conduct must have to lower the standard of our public life. It may have been encouraged also by the open and flagrant dishonesty of a section of the Opposition press, which not only distorts and misrepresents facts, but of late has taken to inventing charges against the Government. Whatever the causc may be, the result of such behaviour must not only lead to strained relations between members in the House itself, but must ultimately degrade Parliament in the eyes of the people. Mr. Fhasek. did not devote muoh time to Mr. Macdonaed's criticism, but in his own very positive fashion answered attacks ancl . refuted in a very clear and convincing manner ccrtain allegations made concerning the starving of Public Works. Mr. BpDDO, who followed, uid not throw any very illuminating light on the Budget or anything else, and a change to Mr. N osworthy was not unwelcome. The Junior Government Whip has developed into an aggressive and effective speaker, and he was in a bellicose mood last evening. He soon had the Opposition throwing back interjections, the result being that the debate warmed up a little towards the close of the sitting. It was a poor beginning for tho Opposition, but they may do better as the debate progresses.